Chapter 3: T.A. 2770 – Home Is Behind

Silence!

There was nothing but silence around him when he regained consciousness; that painful silence which told him that there was no one and nothing alive any more around him.

Frerin didn't dare to open his eyes, afraid of what he'd come to see. He didn't dare to move, because he had no idea how much of the loose debris was still waiting for to crash down on him and for a split second he didn't even dare to either breathe or think. First when his tortured lungs started to revolt, he inhaled a deep breath and coughed until he was able to breathe steadily and regularly again.

When he opened his eyes, he found that they were dry and that they burned from not cried tears, but they widened in surprise and relief, when he recognized that there was still a hint of daylight to spot – not far from where he lay.

His body ached as if every bone was broken, but when he finally tried to move, he thanked Mahal, that this was just what his overstrained mind tried to talk him into.

The young dwarf wanted to get up, but he found himself halfway covering something tender and small and halfway wrapped around it and within a blink of an eye he was wide awake and aware of what did really happen to him.

Frerin got up to his knees and pulled his little sister in his arms. He started crying in relief when he found that she was still alive and breathing. She was covered with dust and her little cheeks were smeared with dirt and tears, blood poured from a laceration on her temple and the burns on her shoulder looked angry, but she was alive. He pressed her close to his chest, when he stumbled to his feet and then, for the first time since the corridor got blocked, he dared to have a look around.

There was no way back to the halls where they came from. Those who had been behind them would have to search for another way out.

He told this to himself all the time while he stared at the debris and the rocks, which separated him and his sister from his mother and those she wanted to lead out through the side gate. It was, what he wanted to believe, that they were still alive – too terrible was the thought, they could have gotten smashed under tons of rock – but deep inside his innermost he knew the truth.

When Dis moved within his arms, he tore himself out of those dark thoughts. He had to take care of his little sister now as there was no one else to do so and this meant to get her out of this corridor and out of the danger of more debris crashing down on them.

Holding the little lass close, he half ran and half crawled towards the light until he finally reached the side gate. The fresh air, he hoped for, smelled and tasted of burning wood and what else ever he didn't want to think of, but he did not care and inhaled several deep breaths.

It was close to sunset and within the upcoming dusk the world around him looked kind of surreal. The sky got enlightened by the still burning leftovers of Dale and the still blazing trees the Lonely Mountain was overgrown with. It was a cruel spectacle of shadow and light that lit the place and the tired faces of those who succeeded in taking flight from the inferno which had destroyed their home and their hopes.

Frerin felt helpless when he dropped down on a rock and watched his kinsmen and his people being filled with both – fear and despair. Most of them carried with them only what they had been able to grab, some of them not even this. Their faces mirrored every emotion thinkable and the biggest part of them had no idea what to do next or where to go to. There was no way back and the only place they would have been able to reach before nightfall would have been Dale, but the once proud city of men would no longer offer them shelter either.

Within this moment, the young dwarf got aware that he and his sister were all alone. There was no sign of their family, neither of their brother nor of their father or grandfather, and Frerin had no idea if they were still alive or if they were dead as well. If they were still alive, would they search for them or would they be convinced they died while making a try to escape the dragon...? And what was he supposed to do?

'Take her to Greenwood. The elves will know what to do!'

His mother's words still resounded within his ears and he knew, she would not come, equal how long he would wait for her. Tears ran down his cheeks again but he wiped them away and straightened. It wasn't yet time to mourn, not as long as there was still a duty he had to fulfil.

He beheld the wee lass within his arms and he knew, he had to keep to his promise.

But before he'd leave, he'd first try to clean their wounds and to dress them. It would take him a couple of days to reach the halls of the elvenking and he would not take the risk that they would get angry.

Therefore, he picked Dis up and took her down to the clear waters of River Running. The wee lass finally opened her eyes when some cold water met her face and she looked at her brother in utter confusion. She stared at the main gate of Erebor which lay in ruins, at the flames which still enlightened the halls and at all those dwarves who passed them without really taking note of them and when she realized that she and her brother were alone, she curled up within Frerin's lap and cried.

When she calmed down a bit, he started to clean the wounds. The laceration wasn't as deep as he first had feared and it would surely heal quickly as would all the black and blue marks she was covered with. What really frightened him were the burns the hot breath of the dragon had left on her shoulder and on her arm and hip but maybe the elves would...

"Can we go home now?" Dis interrupted his thought: "I don't want to stay here."

"I'm sorry, little sister", Frerin replied: "but we cannot go back."

"But we must! We must find mama!"

"Dis, she was not at the gate and you know what she said, right?"

"Go to the elves?"

"Yes!"

"And they will all be there? Mama and Thorin and father and grandfather?"

"I don't know..."

Before he was able to finish his last sentence the little lass teared up again: "Frerin, it hurts. When will it stop? Please make it stop..."

"Try to be patient, little one. Just a little longer. We'll soon make it stop."

With it, he covered the burns with some pieces of water soaked cloth and wrapped her in the blanket again, before he picked her up. They had to leave and he had no idea if they would ever return home.

Frerin was not sure if he had chosen the right path, but when the forest and the brushwood got more and more dense, he was convinced that he and his sister would soon reach the halls of the elvenking.

If he was honest against himself they needed to reach the halls. The rare supplies they had carried with them ran low and he felt as exhausted as he had never felt before. Dis wasn't able to walk longer distances and so he carried her most of the time. He tried to cheer her up whenever possible by singing her songs or telling her stories, but he knew it would not ease the pain.

To hear the little lass whimper and to watch her toss and turn in her sleep while she actually should giggle and laugh, almost broke his heart.

They had several encounters with other dwarves from Erebor, but none of them had been able to tell them what happened to their brother, father and grandfather. Frerin wasn't even sure if they recognized him and Dis as the children of Thrain. They were tired, dirty and didn't look regal at all any more.

He sighed and looked after his sister before he pulled her in a tight hug and before he laid down for another sleepless night under a starlit sky.

Dis snuggled up to him. She was shivering and Frerin hoped that it was just due to the nightly cold and not due to a fever. He wrapped his arms round her and breathed a kiss upon her cheek before he sung another lullaby for her.